Harry Orf, PhD

Harry W. Orf, PhD, is the Senior Vice President for Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, where he oversees the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the nation.

Harry earned a BS in Chemistry summa cum laude in 1971 from the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). He then went to Harvard where he earned his PhD in Chemistry in 1976, joined the faculty shortly thereafter where he conducted research in organic chemistry, served as Dean of Mather House at Harvard College, and later became the inaugural Director of Biochemical Laboratories at Harvard University. In 1983, Harry moved to Harvard Medical School and MGH to become its first Director of Molecular Biology Laboratories. Harry also founded Cambridge Laboratory Consultants, a company that helped found over 65 biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the greater Boston area over a 20-year period.

In 2003, Harry’s Army Reserve unit was activated for Operation Iraqi Freedom. A Colonel and Senior Nuclear Medical Officer, Harry spent a year in Iraq, where he earned the Bronze Star and Legion of Merit. Shortly after returning home in 2004, Harry was named Vice President for Scientific Operations and Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, where he directed the construction of its new 350,000 SF Florida campus, and built and directed the entire science support operation. In February 2012, Harry left Scripps and returned to MGH as its Senior VP for Research. Also in 2012, he received an honorary ScD degree from UMSL.